Famous general who said nuts

While the enlisted men were detained the officers were blind folded and taken to the command post of the th where they presented their surrender ultimatum.

The ultimatum in essence said the st's position was hopeless and that if we elected not to surrender a lot of bad things would happen. They brought the message to me, the G-3 and Paul Danahy, the G My first reaction was that this was a German ruse, designed to get our men out of their fox holes.

But be that as it might, we agreed that we needed to take the message up the line. We took it first to the acting Chief of Staff of the Division, Lt. Ned Moore. Moore told General McAuliffe that we had a German surrender ultimatum. The General's first reaction was that the Germans wanted to surrender to us. Moore quickly disabused him of that notion and explained that the German's demanded our surrender.

When McAuliffe heard that he laughed and said: "Us surrender? Aw, nuts! Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne. The fortune of war is changing. This time the U. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St.

Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands. There is only one possibility to save the encircled U. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note. If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A.

Battalions are ready to annihilate the U. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours' term. Ned Moore, was the first to deliver the news to Brig. Anthony McAuliffe, the commander of the st. Eventually, McAuliffe read the full message, which was typewritten in English and German.

Harry Kinnard. The general laughed. McAuliffe walked out of his command post and headed toward the western perimeter to congratulate a unit that had destroyed a German roadblock earlier in the morning.

As far as he was concerned, according to Army historian S. Meanwhile, the two German officers were waiting on an official reply. They delivered a formal demand for surrender and wanted a formal response to bring back. So at division headquarters, McAuliffe sat down with a pencil and paper and thought for a few minutes about what he would say.

McAuliffe wrote it down. The typewritten response was given to Col. Bud Harper, who delivered it to the waiting and still-blindfolded Germans. Written or verbal, they asked. The American Commander. But they were still confused. Harper discussed how to explain the American slang with Pfc. Over her year career, Joyner trained thousands of students and helped write the first cosmetology laws in Russian soldiers discovered thousands of sick, dying, and dead prisoners when they entered the complex of concentration camps, forced labor camps, and a killing center abandoned by the Read more 50th Anniversary of Apollo Visit the National Archives to see exclusive, featured documents from the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.